Feb 13
More shaving goodies
I recently found an online barber supply house that has Pinaud Clubman products available at some really great prices, so I placed a small order with them.
I really like Clubman aftershave, so I ordered some of their other scents - Virgin island Bay Rum, Musk, Vanilla and Special Reserve.
All right, all right, so the order wasn’t so small after all. But the prices were good enough that I figured I may as well stock up.
I managed to purchase a 16 oz. bottle of Clubman for only 26 cents more than I generally pay for a 6 oz. bottle at the local pharmacy. And the way I go through the Clubman around here, that’s a great bargain.
If you’re interested in another source for shaving supplies, I picked this order up from Appleton Barber 
Supply. It worked out even better than I had hoped, as I managed to get this package overnight, via regular ground service UPS. How can you beat a deal like that?
After living here nearly 6 years, I’ve finally decided to start adding some color to the walls. I’m sick to death of all the white. I’m still looking for the ‘perfect’ color for the master bath, but the theme for the room has already been determined. Old-style barber shop. So I even ordered a Barbicide jar, as part of the decorations for the bath.
I had been keeping my collection of shaving cream tubes on the countertop and I needed to move them to the shave cabinet I recently installed. As I was storing them in the cabinet, the tube of Proraso called out to me.
As mentioned a few days back, I’ve been doing some ultra-secret and high-tech shaving soap testing for Mama Bear. I’ve developed quite a collection of Mama Bear shaving soaps and have been having excellent luck with them. I had been using a small Vulfix shaving brush that was a bit stingy about sharing lather with me, so I talked to Giovanni at Barbieria Italiana about a new brush. He recommended an Omega 33175 brush to me. And now, I’m recommending it to you. Wow, this brush is really nice. And, as you can see, it’s a good looking design, as well.
Since I’ve been trying all of these Mama Bear soaps, I had yet to try this new brush out with a cream, so tonight was the night.
I did my usual hot towel treatment and then mixed up an amazing bowl of Proraso lather. I was astounded at how well this brush worked with the cream. I’ve been quite impressed with how it was working with soaps and didn’t anticipate it working so well with creams. A very pleasant surprise.
As you can already guess, I had a Derby blade loaded into my Merkur 23C razor. I did my usual three-
pass shave and then followed that up with a cold water rinse and a healthy splash of Clubman Virgin Island Bay Rum aftershave.
Wow, I’ve been getting some really great shaves of late, but I’m not so sure this wasn’t the best of the lot.
I’ve seen some gents make the comment that a BBS shave isn’t necessary, but when I’m producing that kind of shave on a regular basis, it’s pretty difficult to accept anything less.
I’ve three, very nice straight razors in my possession now. And I’ve been getting some practice with how to best use them, but a true BBS shave is not in the cards just yet. And that ends up being a problem, because I know I can get a smooth as glass shave with my Merkur/Derby combination. So, when deciding to use a straight razor, I’m admitting to myself that I’m going to end up with less than perfect results.
I need to stop thinking that way, so I don’t get negative about using a straight razor. The blades are far too nice to just let them sit around un-used.
I’ve been watching Leisureguy’s blog and keeping track of his progress with using oil for a last pass clean-up. It sounds interesting, but with the results I’m getting, I can’t see what I would gain by trying this technique.
I’ve got a new bath soap order placed with Mama Bear, so I’ll report on those when they arrive and I get a chance to use them.
